SOPA
The Stop Online Pirating Act (SOPA) made headlines in January 2012 when it was being voted on in Congress. The bill was introduced to the House in November 2011, and it aimed at making it harder for internet sites, especially those created outside of the United States, to sell or distribute pirated copyrighted material, like music and movies. It also protected goods such as counterfeit watches and purses, sold online. What SOPA Aimed to Do SOPA would have enabled the U.S. Attorney General to request a court order demanding that a service provider take measures to prevent access for subscribers to sites deemed to carry illegal information. The bill would also have prevented sites from linking to other sites that are dedicated to the “theft of U.S. property” and also blocking the transmission of funds to the sites. These sites deemed as inappropriate could be shut down without a trial in court, even though they may not be doing anything wrong. Companies could protest the directives from the copyright holders, but they would have to go to court to raise their objections. If they decided to follow orders from the owners of the copyrighted information, they would have had legal immunity for blocking legitimate websites that are falsely accused. Internet service providers and payment processors like VISA and Paypal could not be sued for taking action against sites that were not dealing illegally, meaning that no company would be protected against false accusations. Websites using scraps of copyrighted material that they thought was available for use under the “fair use” standards could be shut down as well, without even so much as a request to take the information off the site first. Why People Were Against It The broad wording of the bill made people nervous. YouTube specifically spoke out saying they would have to police the content of their site more closely and that would have a detrimental result, "YouTube would just go dark immediately, It couldn't function." Also it would have meant that the government could have censored the internet however they wished, blocking entire sites that had minor copyright infractions, which would potentially cause issues with sites that have “good, legal content”. Also it would allow for “witch-hunts” and the creation of “internet blacklists” that are politically motivated, against entire websites. The government could be manipulated into helping out large corporations and working against the interest of the public by blocking sites and imposing censorship. Many of the companies that were supporting the bill were those in the movie and music industries. 'What Happened Next?' The SOPA measure was pulled from Congress in January of 2012 by the same Congressman that proposed it due to the many critics of the bill. Sites pulled together and did internet blackouts on January 18th, 2012 to protest the bill, shutting down all access to many popular sites such as Wikipedia for 24 hours, letting the public know just what they might expect if the bill were to actually pass. Those who did not do blackouts did action pages, linking to other sites where users could sign petitions against the bill. Legally, SOPA was considered to be unconstitutional and a potential infringement on free speech rights. If one website with thousands of pages were targeted because one page had assumedly illegal information, the entire site could be shut down and accused of copyright infringement.